For about four years at the end of the 1860s the white population of Natal was gripped by fear of black rape. The fear does not appear to have been engendered by any specific event, nor did it result in a marked increase of prosecutions for rape in the colonial courts. It ended as abruptly and mysteriously as it had begun. Stanley Cohen’s theory of ‘moral panics’ does not offer a particularly appropriate explanation for this rape scare, but it does suggest fruitful lines of investigation by pointing to the relation between anxiety and the desire of the dominant classes in any society to maintain control. The hypothesis advanced in this case study is that fear of losing control was a constant undercurrent in the thinking of the settler minority. This substratum of anxiety rose to the surface in the form of a moral panic whenever disturbances in the economy or the body politic were severe enough to unsettle the mask of composure worn by the face of public authority. In a patriarchal society where women were part and parcel of property to be defended against threats from below, fear of rape was a special concern of white males. For that reason the study of colonial rape scares differ markedly from studies of rape pure and simple. Unravelling the complicated web of male concerns about gender, property and politics is a difficult business at any time, but some progress can be made by studies of this kind which focus on societies which believe they face a fundamental assault upon their domestic arrangements.(Read more)

*White male between 25 and 35 years old. *Can be of high income or low income. *Average to high intelligence. *Usually married with children and has a career. …. The FBI has found that a history of cruelty to animals is one of the traits that regularly appear in its computer records of serial rapists and murderers, and the standard diagnostic and treatment manual for psychiatric and emotional disorders lists cruelty to animals as a diagnostic criterion for conduct disorders. Studies have shown that violent and aggressive criminals are more likely to have abused animals as children than criminals considered non-aggressive. A survey of psychiatric patients who had repeatedly tortured dogs and cats found that all of them had high levels of aggression toward people as well, including one patient who had murdered a boy. To researchers, a fascination with cruelty to animals is a red flag in the lives of serial rapists and killers. Says Robert Ressler, founder of the FBI’s behavioral sciences unit, “These are the kids who never learned it’s wrong to poke out a puppy’s eyes.”